the comic companies should make sure the issues are scheduled after the work is completed

What a briliant idea!  Why does Marvel simply fail to grasp this simple, established notion, especially with mini-series?

Carlin seems to get it.  Isn't he waiting for JB's JLA:Classified arc to be finished before scheduling it?

Kelly, your idea makes too much sense!

I'm sure the complaint would be that it costs too much to have a couple of teams working at the same time.  While it seems true initially, it also seems that long term it would work out to a more reliable monthly AND trade schedule.

Welcome Adam, I certainly enjoy your work and appreciate your points.  They are well taken.

I think expectations are the main thing we are talking about concerning professionalism.  I have no problem with ASWW starting whenever, as long as what is supposed to be the schedule once issue #1 hits the stand sticks.  I don't even have a problem with Ultimates 2 shipping bi-monthly if indeed it did ship bi-monthly as expected.

Knocking an artist because that artist is slow is really not the big picture, in my opinion.  Hell, at home I am the slow one compared to what my wife can accomplish, so any comparison to her abilities would be unfair.

Brandon Pennison: Hell, at home I am the slow one compared to what my wife can accomplish, so any comparison to her abilities would be unfair.

Same here!  My girlfriend can do a sink full of dishes in a third the time it takes me.  Doesn't mean I get out of doing them, though.  If there's a show on at 8:00 that we want to watch, I plan to start scrubbing at 7:30, whereas the GF can start at 7:45 and still have a few minutes to spare.

I thank everyone for their kind words, and Mr. Byrne in particular for my fabulous childhood full of wonderful comics.

I loathe posting online as I feel it rarely accomplishes much more than a vent spleen, with no real resolution other than 'let's agree to disagree'.  Thanks for letting me speak my peice. 

I understand that the thread topic concerns some issues that don't relate to my situation specifically, but I felt I need to cough an *ahem* into my hand when I was singled out by name.

We have a great comics industry in America, wherein there's room for prolific engines of art like our host and beatnik hipster doofuses such as myself.  When the climate changes and all must produce monthly, I'll show you all a thing or two about mediocrity.  ;-)  Until then, I shall revel in the freedoms the current marketplace allows.

As for broken schedules...  Yes, certain of us should NEVER accept monthly gigs, as we shall never maintain the schedule.  Also, the companies should never solicit before the art is done (or mostly done).  There are always factors that we are never aware of, however.  Sometimes companies will solicit early as a way to light a fire under the artist's asss.  Sometimes a schedule gets moved around, and a book that wasn't up for solicitation gets bumped up for strange corporate reasons.  Sometimes schedules are rewritten by the gremlins that clean up after hours and replace all the office furniture with exact duplicates.

As for ALL-STAR WONDER WOMAN, wish me luck.  DC is really letting me do my thing, and if the books stinks like a fishwife it'll be all my fault.  :-)  I'm supposed to do 10 pages a month (I'm shooting for 11) so that way I'll (hopefully) have aa 22-page issue done every 2 months.  I'll be staying on the covers of CATWOMAN while doing this, so that no one thinks I'm dead.  Laura Martin is going to be coloring the book;  I'll be working hand-in-hand with her to make sure the books looks as good as it can.  Check out our 2-page Wonder Woman origin in DC's 52, #12 for a taste of how ASWW will probably look.  My dream for ASWW is to cram as much character & story into Diana's tale as humanly possible, with the type of action set-pieces that will make Joss Whedon scream "Damn you, Adam Huuuuuuuughes!!!" into the rain, shaking his tiny fists in impotent rage.

AH!

Ultimates 2, like Iron Man and other Marvel books, is a problem because it was billed as a monthly book when it should not have been.  Astonishing X-Men is trying to do better by officially going bi-monthly.  Okay, seems fair.  Marvel is trying to be up front about it.  However, the real problems surface when slower artists are assigned to established, monthly books and cannot keep up.  This is a mistake.  Now take it further.

Are new titles with longer wait periods going to be created for new, unproven talent?  They shouldn't be.  Therefore, new talent would have to be able to produce a monthly comic book before earning star status and receiving the benefits of a title just for them.  With this model, everyone working in the field should be able to produce a monthly book, because if you couldn't, you wouldn't be working in the field.

Somewhere along the way, this changed, and slower artists were getting more work.  The paradigm shifted, and it might have been the writers fault.  In the attempt to attract attention in a shrinking audience, Marvel (especially) has begun to promote TV and Movie writers as accomplished stars before they have even produced a comic.  They would have us believe that these new fans-turned-pros are instant super-stars.  Bull$#!^.  And look where it has gotten us, infecting the artists who have to begin late in the first place.

Geoff Johns, whose work I like mostly, began with Stars & Stripes, then moved to Flash where he got better and better before getting JSA and getting established enough to land Green Lantern & Infinite Crisis.  He proved himself.  He earned it.  Even Meltzer, I believe, had to impress someone with Green Arrow before getting Identity Crisis, and then JLA.  And his JLA work is done before the series even debuts!  What a great idea!  Sounds like a plan to me.

Sure beats waiting on Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada to find time to finish their work.  Wonder why I did not by any issues of Spider-Man/Black Cat and Daredevil: Father?  Hmmm...

P.S. However, Kevin did impress fans enough with his Daredevil arc to earn a shot a Green Arrow, which I enjoyed.